The Road Trip
Any road trip is going to feel longer than you think it will. And you'll be tired and you won't get a meal exactly when you're hungry. You never find a bed exactly when you want to go to sleep. And you're probably not going to find out what it is you got on the road to find out in the first place.And you know all that. You know all that going into it. And you still -- we all still -- buy into the cliche about road trips.That what a road trip stands for is hope. Hope. That somewhere -- anywhere -- is better than here. That somewhere on the road I will turn into the person I want to be. I'll turn into the person I believe I could be. That I am.And we hit the road. You and me and our whole great nation. With high hopes and no expectations for the future.

Ira Glass

This American Life 2007-05-20

Just getting back from a vacation/roadtrip makes me feel sort of letdown. I love the idea of packing and going somewhere new. I enjoy going off the road and meandering into uncharted territory with the thrill of discovering something that we didn't know would be there.


To get away from one's working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change. ~Charles Horton Cooley


We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. ~Hilaire Belloc

Like all great travellers,I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen. ~Benjamin Disraeli




Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. ~Anatole France

I like to travel with a basic outline of an itinerary with lots of holes to fill in if a whim to do something unexpected presents itself. Traveling with a child really doesn't fit with this philosophy as Molly always is asking when will we be done which puts a damper on the spontaneity of the trip. Also I always feel that the day has to have something that she would like- sometimes very hard to do and find! Coming home is rather a downer for me. Real life seems to just drop onto us and catch us in its net as we pull in the driveway. There's mail to be looked at, phone calls to return, laundry, e-mails demanding attention, laundry, putting away what was taken, laundry, blah, blah, blah... The responsibilities that were put off "until I get back from vacation" are suddenly stifling and there. Real Life has imposed itself on us once again until the next vacation.

And that's the wonderful thing about family travel: it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind. ~Dave Barry